Now I am just posing the question that the Penguins could be done for now in free agency.

You look at the roster and they have 23 guys to start the season with, if you put Dustin Jefferey on the 3rd line and move Harrison Zolnierczyk to the bench. If something does happen, I would suspect that a blue liner is going to be traded, but how much are you going to get for a Bortuzzo, or Niskanen ?

Its funny that "The Piece" is put into this roster, and it really, IMHO, balances out the defense. If Brian Dumoulin, or Robert Bortuzzo could step up there play and platoon with Engelland I think that is a solid defensive unit. Simon Depres is still a little concerning, but it is time for him to play and learn.

Taking the emotions of the playoffs out of the situation, that is a pretty good roster.

Unless a legitimately good player falls into their lap I think they should go with what they have, minus whoever they have to trade to get cap compliant (Niskanen?). Save the cap space for the deadline.

Niskanen will be traded to get a 3rd line RW who is fast and hits. I am comfortable with Jeffrey or Jokinen on that LW. I also wouldn't be surprised to see Jokinen play LW with Malin and Neal to he on defensive draws and have Bennett develop some power and defense on the 3rd line with Sutter and Jeffrey.

Z will be a 13th forward if Shero wants to carry 13 and right now we are looking at 8 defenseman on the roster, maybe too much. Rather see Bortuzzo, Despres and Engellend rotate as the third pairing and Jeffrey as the 13th forward and Z in WBS. That requires moving Niskanen though and on this team $2 million for a 3rd pairing not a main penalty killer or PP point man is too much money.

DelPen wrote:Niskanen will be traded to get a 3rd line RW who is fast and hits. I am comfortable with Jeffrey or Jokinen on that LW. I also wouldn't be surprised to see Jokinen play LW with Malin and Neal to he on defensive draws and have Bennett develop some power and defense on the 3rd line with Sutter and Jeffrey.

Z will be a 13th forward if Shero wants to carry 13 and right now we are looking at 8 defenseman on the roster, maybe too much. Rather see Bortuzzo, Despres and Engellend rotate as the third pairing and Jeffrey as the 13th forward and Z in WBS. That requires moving Niskanen though and on this team $2 million for a 3rd pairing not a main penalty killer or PP point man is too much money.

Agreed on the 2nd line. IMO, it should be a preseason battle between Jokinen and Bennett on who gets that spot, and then it's theirs to lose in the season.

So with glass, adams, vitale you might get 5-6 goals from that line in 82 games. This is just terrible. I know its the 4th line, but you need slightly more production than that.

All of those guys have typically averaged about five goals in their career for a full season. That would be a down year for all three of them if you're only getting five or six goals from that line over the entire season.

Swap Adams for someone faster who has some actual weight behind their hits, and that line is fine. We don't need goals from our 4th, but we need SOMETHING. Even just a shift where they turn momentum with some pressure every now and then would be useful. But we'll probably see the same junk as last year, where vitale skates hard for half of his games, glass only shows flashes of being a wrecking ball and adams limps around leaning into guys, which counts the same in the box score as Cooke destroying someone along the boards.

On the plus side, glass did show improvement towards the end of the year in making an impact with his physicality. Maybe that will continue.

A move still has to be made, as the Pens are 660K under the cap, and Bortuzzo and Jeffrey are still not signed. To sign both of them, they will be over the cap. That is why it would seem Niskanen is the odd man out. He makes the most on defense that we can afford to move. Moving Engelland is not going to free up enough money. Jeffrey will cost them about 625K and Bortuzzo about 575K. Actually, they might be able to move Engelland, sign both RFAs, but they would be right up against the cap the whole season and have no flexibility. Shero usually doesn't opperate that way. Trade Niskanen for a pick, Pens will have just about 3mil in cap space...sign the two RFAs, and they will have about 1.9mil in space left.

Still not thrilled about our 3rd and 4th lines. Willing to give Jeffrey a shot there on the 3rd. He isn't bad defensively, and if he can improve that could be a very good defensive line. Would still like to see a lot more banging type guys with size (doesn't mean they are automatically slow) on 4th line.

I don't think we are done signing free agents. I expect a few more 2 way contracts. Maybe sign an EL contract for a few undrafted forwards that we invite to camp with bottom 6 potential. I doubt we are signing any more NHL FAs unless its under 1 mil or if we have freed up cap space in a trade

So with glass, adams, vitale you might get 5-6 goals from that line in 82 games. This is just terrible. I know its the 4th line, but you need slightly more production than that.

All of those guys have typically averaged about five goals in their career for a full season. That would be a down year for all three of them if you're only getting five or six goals from that line over the entire season.

That;s just not true at all. Anyways isn't Adams like 36?

bringing him back on a 1 year deal I thought was going to happen. 2 years is a complete joke.

So with glass, adams, vitale you might get 5-6 goals from that line in 82 games. This is just terrible. I know its the 4th line, but you need slightly more production than that.

All of those guys have typically averaged about five goals in their career for a full season. That would be a down year for all three of them if you're only getting five or six goals from that line over the entire season.

That;s just not true at all. Anyways isn't Adams like 36?

bringing him back on a 1 year deal I thought was going to happen. 2 years is a complete joke.

Not sure why I'm even bothering but just go do the math. Adams' career average is almost exactly 5 goals per 82 games. Vitale is slightly above 5. Glass is slightly below 4. On average, they would be good for about 14 goals a season. It's completely wrong to expect only 5-6 goals total from that trio. Can we please stick to facts around here?